From the historic Will Rogers Memorial Museum and the iconic Cain’s Ballroom to the panhandle’s Black Mesa and southeastern Oklahoma’s Talimena Scenic Drive, the Bucket List highlights those experiences Oklahoma Today editors feel are urban and rural adventures to fill a lifetime.

“It’s our hope that it will inspire readers to visit, or revisit, these unique Oklahoma destinations,” Steffie Corcoran, Oklahoma Today editor, said in a news release. “The truth is, given no space constraints, we could have included a hundred or more essential Oklahoma experiences. Hopefully readers will share theirs.”

By scouring the state for the top must-see places and asking Facebook fans to nominate their favorite Oklahoma spots, managing editor Nathan Gunter assembled the piece using 26 unique Oklahoma experiences.

“This was one of the most complicated, and one of the most enjoyable, writing assignments I’ve ever had,” Gunter said in the news release. “I did almost 30 interviews and spent a lot of time on the phone and in the car. But it was a great time, and I hope Okies will give it a look when they’re planning where to go this spring and summer.”

Making the Oklahoma Bucket List is the Great Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge near Cherokee, Okla., with a vast expanse of flat, bleach-white salt plains, where visitors are welcome to dig and unearth small selenite crystals buried beneath the surface.

Russell Nickel, park manager of nearby Great Salt Plains State Park, said the encapsulated hourglass-shaped formations are quite unique.

“We don’t know how they’re created, but it’s the only place in the world where they have this design inside the crystals,” Nickel said in the magazine article.

From the plains to the Cain’s, catching a show at the historic Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa also makes the list. The walls are lined with the music history of the place, from Bob Wills and Hank Williams to The Police and Jack White.

Visitors can spend an entire day at the Fort Sill National Historic Landmark Museum, where Geronimo was held as an Apache prisoner and is buried. On its military side, Fort Sill is home to the world’s first atomic cannon, Atomic Annie.

“Fort Sill isn’t just about the Army or the Native Americans like Geronimo and Quanah Parker who were here,” Frank Siltman, museum director, told Gunter. “It’s about the American expansion, about the development of the United States and how integral the Army was in maintaining stability and peace during the growth of Oklahoma.”

Stop by the one place that links all of Oklahoma — the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City — and check out its expansive art collection, including four large murals by Miami native Charles Banks Wilson that depict Oklahoma history from the early Spanish explorers of the 1500s to just before statehood in 1907.

“These murals are full of symbolism and excitement, especially if you’re trying to get in touch with all the events and people who have contributed to our state’s foundation,” Amber Sharples, assistant director of the Oklahoma Arts Council, said in the article. “The mission of the entire collection is to tell Oklahoma’s story through the visual arts.”

Visitors to the Black Mesa near Kenton in the Oklahoma Panhandle will swear they’re in the deserts of the Southwest. What was once an area where dinosaurs ruled, the Dust Bowl raged and Plains homesteaders struggled to make a life from the land has become a place of solitude and tranquility in a naturally beautiful landscape.

And nothing or no one says Oklahoma quite like the quintessential Oklahoman, Will Rogers. Visitors can learn more about the life of Oklahoma’s favorite son at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum in Claremore and the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch near Oologah.

“He had a way with words that allowed him to be understood across the spectrum,” Steve Gragert, museum director, said in the magazine article. “Will is someone whose words continue to speak to people and enable them to understand their own culture, their own political situation, their own life.”